International Property Journal - News and information on global property markets

After years of negotiations and threats, the Canadian Real Estate Association has dramatically reworked its policies to settle anti-competition charges.

Under the new bylaws, sellers will be able to pay a broker a flat fee to list their homes on the MLS. The new rules also allow brokers using the MLS to offer clients an array of for-fee services, essentially paving the way for discount brokers.

Tourism Vancouver

Vancouver real estate's record-setting, economy-defying sales surge may be drawing to an end.

In August, Vancouver area sales declined 36 percent from the same month of 2009, according to the latest data from the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver. While that may sound catastrophic, August of 2009 saw the second-largest volume of sales ever recorded by the association, part of a buying frenzy that pushed housing prices to all-time highs.

Post-Olympic fever has been unable to sustain British Columbia’s over-heated property market, with Vancouver sales down 10 percent in May from a year earlier.

Overall, British Columbia tallied a four percent drop in sales, which analysts say is the first sign of slowdown in the market

Several factors are impacting sales, experts say, including rising interest rates and inflated prices that bounced back with a vengeance last year.

In Vancouver, 200 condo units in the buildings that housed athletes during the recent Olympic Games went on sale this month, generating brisk sales, according to the company marketing the project.

Unlike past Olympic villages, which were designed more as dormitories, the Vancouver committee specifically created the project to be sold as condos after the Olympics. The city ultimately helped finance the development with $750 million in taxpayer-backed loans.

Mareazul, Grand Coral's project on Riviera Maya

With the United States still wallowing in the blahs, Mexico developers are allocating more resources to target Canadian second home buyers.

Although difficult to quantify, project managers say the Canadian snow birds are bouncing back quicker than other buyers. Canadians also seem more willing to pull the trigger on a sale, un-encumbered by the recent economic nightmares haunting U.S. buyers, developers say.

Owners of the Revelstoke Mountain Resort in British Columbia say they have recapitalized and are now ready to move forward on the ambitious project.

The master plan for Revelstoke calls for 1,500 condos, 2,000 hotel suites, 850 townhomes and 550 single-family lots, as well as more than 500,000 square feet of commercial space and a Nick Faldo-designed golf course.

Launched in Dec. 2007, Revelstoke quickly hit a brick wall when the second-home market stalled. In Jan. 2009 minority partner Northland Properties Corp. took over control from the original development team, which was led by Don Simpson, founder of Denver-based Simpson Property Group LP.

Courtesy: Tourism Vancouver

Before the Olympics, real estate executives in Vancouver downplayed the impact of the Games. Any boost to sales occurred years ago, when Vancouver was named a host city, conventional wisdom suggested.

Conventional wisdom may have been wrong.

Instead of grinding to halt during the crazed hoopla leading up to the Games, sales in the greater Vancouver area actually surged in February, jumping 67.1 percent from February of 2009 and 28.6 percent from January, according to the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver.

Federal regulators in Canada are turning up the pressure on the Canadian Real Estate Association, trying to compel the Realtor group to relax restrictions on the multiple listing service.

Hoping to stave off government intervention, the Canadian Real Estate Association has proposed changes to the national MLS, which it owns. But the proposals were not enough to satisfy regulators.

After months of negotiations, last week the agency regulating commerce, the Competition Bureau, formally filed an application with the federal Competition Tribunal, which has the power to force changes.